I have been TERRIBLE lately about hitting the convenience foods and eating out more than I should. I could make a lot of excuses, but the fact is I've just been lazy lately. I've been spending more on food as a result, too.
So I vowed this evening that I was going to MAKE DINNER AT HOME with whatever available items were in the fridge and the freezer.
So I grabbed the following items from our existing stock of random edibles:
- frozen turkey kielbasa
- onion
- pine nuts
- tomato
- 1/4 head ice…
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Added by Danielle on February 18, 2009 at 8:11pm —
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Need to pick up an inexpensive mannequin? Kitchen gear? Desks? Chairs? Bulk italian tile? Or maybe just some other items for a small business or a home project?
Check out the City Center liquidation sale center. Open 10am - 8pm every day, including weekends, through February 28th.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/11/liquidation.ART_ART_02-11-0…
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Added by Danielle on February 17, 2009 at 6:45pm —
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Channel 4 reports that admission to the
Columbus Zoo is FREE today. The zoo's web site also says that admission is 1/2 price in general through 3/1/09.
They also report that the first 150 kids in at
COSI today beginning at 10am get in FREE (parking and adult admission is presumably extra).
Enjoy your President's Day! What a great opportunity to stop by your local library and pick up a book or an article ab…
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Added by Danielle on February 16, 2009 at 8:10am —
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Don't forget about the FREE Valentine's Day event we wrote about earlier in the week. Franklin Park Conservatory from 5pm - 10pm. Wine tasting tickets do have a cost, but it's optional to purchase them. Admission, parking, and a beautiful setting is free.
Volleyball tournament (FREE) - Watch games between 174 of the best girls' volleyball teams in the East and Midwest. Saturday and Sunday…
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Added by Danielle on February 13, 2009 at 7:50am —
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If you're looking for a spot to spend Valentine's Day and don't want to break the bank, consider visiting the
Franklin Park Conservatory.
On Valentine's day they have free admission from 5pm - 10pm (free parking, too). If you want to partake of the wine sampling then it will be $3 each for tasting tickets, or 5 tickets for $14.
But wine tasting aside, what a wonderful way to spend an evening with your significant other enjoying some…
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Added by Danielle on February 11, 2009 at 10:07am —
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I think I've mentioned before that some of my meetings lately have had me driving around town frequently when the
Dave Ramsey show is on the radio. I've been especially intrigued lately now that I personally know a couple folks who are using his methods and are having good success with it. A previous blog even shared an overview of an especially inspiring call where a single income family with five kids had paid off an e…
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Added by Danielle on February 10, 2009 at 3:24pm —
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Saturday I had the pleasure of addressing the Professional Women's Group of
Dress for Success here in Columbus. If you're not familiar with Dress for Success, it's a wonderful organization that helps women who need assistance securing professional attire for that interview or for ongoing employment. Women who have worked with the organization and have found employment periodically get together for ongoing learning…
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Added by Danielle on February 9, 2009 at 9:00am —
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He's such a cute saver sometimes. He was reading online about a book that sounded interesting to him. So he went and pulled it up on Amazon and read more detail and got the pricing information.
Then, he thought to himself, "Gee, I wonder if it's available at the library?" (*mental applause*)
On the library's site, he found out all the copies of the book were currently checked out. So he signed up to add it to his Reserve list...and now he'll get an email from the library when it's ready to pic…
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Added by Danielle on February 9, 2009 at 8:43am —
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Thank goodness it's scheduled to get above freezing here in Columbus this weekend! What a great opportunity to get bundled up and take a walk outside...shake off some of that cabin fever.
But if that's not appealing to you, try some of these alternatives:
OSU Men's Glee Club Concert (FREE?) - I'm having to guess if this is free...I'm basing this guess on the fact that it's at St. Mark's Episcopal Church (2151 Dorset Rd) this Sunday at 4pm. There's no cost list…
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Added by Danielle on February 6, 2009 at 10:19am —
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I hope all you fellow savers out there will find this amusing enough to get a smile out of it.
So I've said before that we use
The Grocery Game and save an average of about 40% on our grocery bills. Well last night I was out doing a shopping run and I'm standing there with my list and my coupon and I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the right kind of tortillas so I can save my 50% off the regular price. Sometimes this does require a bit of concentra…
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Added by Danielle on February 6, 2009 at 7:30am —
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I've been really bad lately about remembering to bring in snack food to work (since I usually eat small quantities of food every 3 hours or so.) That means I've been hitting the random junk food that's periodically in the break room, or buying out of the vending machine. Not only is this a waste of money, but it's sure not good for me! Sugar highs and lows can be a real pain.
So I'm getting back in the rhythm of doing my grocery runs and stocking some of my staple snack foods. But beyond that I…
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Added by Danielle on February 5, 2009 at 8:12pm —
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Well, folks...I've been holding off doing this announcement here because I was waiting to see about the status of a replacement. I've accepted a new job at another credit union, and my last day officially moderating StressFreeWallet will be 2/18/09. Now, I'll still be a member of StressFree and chiming in with my two bits as they occur to me, but eventually when my replacement is found there will be a brand-new moderator with all sorts of new tidbits and insights to share!
They're actively sear…
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Added by Danielle on February 3, 2009 at 9:03am —
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Saturday we held our extended, 2 1/2 hour Out of Debt Seminar at Whetstone Library. We had a few hardy souls who braved the cold and the ice to join us. Since this was our last publicly available Out of Debt Seminar for a while, I wanted to take this one last chance to re-post some of the resources we used and referred to.
First thing is first...tracking spending (not 100% a necessity, but it gives you a head start on planning what's going to happen tomorrow, next week, or next month). Once you…
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Added by Danielle on February 2, 2009 at 8:00am —
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If you happen to have a significant other, don't forget that V-day is coming up! I mention this also as a reminder to myself. I'm probably the one wife on the face of the earth that is fully capable of forgetting that it's coming up. Note to self: take some time this weekend and plan a nice evening out without breaking the spending plan.
Ok, so that said...let's see what's coming up this weekend:
Fa…
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Added by Danielle on January 30, 2009 at 12:08pm —
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Today we had another Lunch & Learn at Columbus State. The topic: Avoiding and/or Recovering from ID Theft.
We ranged over a variety of issues and I promised folks I'd be coming back here to post additional resources and links. So here are a few additional things we talked about:
Opting out of prescreened credit offers - Tired of your mailbox filling with all those credit card offers that you then have to shred? Get off their list! Now, this only applies to what's called a "fi…
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Added by Danielle on January 29, 2009 at 2:26pm —
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In honor of today's weather in Columbus, Ohio (i.e. 3/4 to an inch of ice, now being covered by the start of up to 5 or 6 inches of snow), I am pondering the cost/benefit analysis of staying home when the weather is exceedingly poor.
Disadvantage of staying home: Use up a day of time off, have more work to do tomorrow, end up working from home some anyways.
Advantage of staying home: Likelihood of crashing car on icy freeways goes to zero. Eat at home with items on-hand, stay piled in blankets…
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Added by Danielle on January 28, 2009 at 7:43am —
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We had friends over for dinner late last week. It was a fun evening of good food, good company, and a game my brother's family taught us called
Mexican Train Dominoes.
Sometimes I forget about the things we've worked into our daily lives to manage our expenses and reach our goals. At one point one of our guests, poor thing, reached for her coat because it was so cold in our house!! I had completely forgotten that we've become accustomed t…
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Added by Danielle on January 26, 2009 at 10:30am —
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Horror of horrors, our household did not have internet access for two days. It's a long story about the phone company made an account change they weren't supposed to make. So a few hours on the phone later, after hubby patiently attempted to work with call center reps in India and then in the Philippines, he somehow got linked to an actual U.S. rep that knew what was going on and how to fix it.
So we're back up =-)
But it was an interesting couple of days as we realized just how much we have g…
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Added by Danielle on January 24, 2009 at 8:36am —
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In the distant past we talked about a number of reasons why it's a good idea to sign up for "e-statements" with your credit union, your bank, your credit card company, etc. etc.
Some of the reasons include:
- It's more secure than having a statement sitting in your mailbox all day where an ID thief can pull it out. E-statements are housed in secure online servers backed by lots of encryption and firewalls.
- It's greener - you save trees by not printing all that paper.
- It'…
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Added by Danielle on January 22, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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Today we held a brief, 45 minute Lunch & Learn session at Columbus State on how to Get Out of Debt (emphasis on credit card debt). This is the same seminar we are hosting tomorrow at the Columbus Metropolitan Library from noon - 12:45pm. The longer, more in-depth version of this seminar is being held on Saturday, January 31st from 10am - 12:30pm at the Whetstone Library in Clintonville (
please register if you are interested in attending).…
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Added by Danielle on January 21, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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